Venezuela’s parliament swears in Delcy Rodriguez as interim president after US forces seized Nicolas Maduro, sparking protests and vows to secure his return.
CARACAS: Venezuela’s parliament swore in Delcy Rodriguez as interim president on Monday, two days after US forces seized her predecessor Nicolas Maduro.
Rodriguez took the oath of office in the National Assembly, telling lawmakers she was doing so “in the name of all Venezuelans.”
She expressed pain over “the kidnapping of our heroes, the hostages in the United States,” referring to Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores.
Parliament denounced the capture of the leftist leader while vowing support for his stand-in.
Outside the legislature, thousands of Venezuelans gathered to demand Maduro’s release.
“Regardless of whether Nicolas Maduro has something to answer for in court, this was not the way to do it,” protester Flur Alberto, 32, told AFP.
Inside, the National Assembly offered its full backing to Rodriguez and reelected her brother Jorge Rodriguez as parliament speaker.
As the session opened, lawmakers chanted a slogan from Maduro’s presidential campaign.
On President Donald Trump’s orders, US military forces launched strikes on Caracas and seized Maduro and his wife early Saturday.
“The president of the United States, Mr Trump, claims to be the prosecutor, the judge, and the policeman of the world,” senior lawmaker Fernando Soto Rojas said.
“We say: you will not succeed.”
Venezuela’s Supreme Court on Saturday ordered Delcy Rodriguez to assume the presidency in an acting capacity.
The military also threw its support behind her on Sunday.
Jorge Rodriguez vowed to pursue “all procedures, all platforms, and all avenues to bring back Nicolas Maduro Moros, my brother, my president.”
Maduro’s lawmaker son Nicolas Maduro Guerra also offered his support for the acting president.
“Count on me, count on my family,” Maduro Guerra told Rodriguez, adding the country was “in good hands” until his parents’ return.
He later told protesters outside he was in indirect contact with his father.
Delcy Rodriguez, who on Saturday insisted Maduro remains the country’s “only” president, later extended an offer of cooperation to Washington.
Trump warned Rodriguez could face a fate worse than Maduro if she failed to heed US demands.
